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Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Why I Dislike Verizon -or- Life Without the Internet

I am typing this post at a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, and that makes me angry.

My mom taught me not to hate people, only their actions. Well, I hate the actions of Verizon and strongly dislike the customer service representative who has caused us to be without home internet service since Monday.

Yes, it could be worse. I know that right now I have more in common with a spoiled child whose favorite toy has been taken away than a starving child in Africa. But this issue could have been completely avoided had we spoken to an agent who knew anything whatsoever about Verizon's basic services.

Here's what happened:

Paul called Verizon on Thursday to disconnect our home phone line. Ever since we moved in, we have received only three types of calls:

political surveys

requests from Ohio State for money

robocalls from Fort Hamilton High School about a truant student who used to have our phone number

The one thing we never got was calls from anyone important.

Anyway, Paul specifically asked if cancelling the phone service would have any impact on the internet. The answer, time and again, was "no." Our bill would decrease $25 and the internet service would be uninterrupted.

But on Monday: No internet.

After 90 minutes and 7 transfers, Paul learned that in fact we need a whole new type of internet service. And it couldn't be set up for a week. And it would cost only about $5 less than our joint phone/internet service.

Needless to say, we were furious. We wouldn't have even cancelled the home phone had we known this would be the result.

On Tuesday, Paul spent another three hours on the phone with Verizon. He succeeded in getting us a lower price for the lone internet service but was told it would be 10 days until we had it.

No.

My turn to get on the phone. I finally was transferred to a guy in the order resolution department who was actually nice and knowledgeable. He said the order could be expedited once it had made it's way further into the system. He promised to call back with an update.

And he did. He left me a message today that our service would be reconnected by 9 p.m. tomorrow.

I hope so, because I feel like I'm in the dark ages of the early 1990s. I do have a laptop, but it's too heavy, slow and temperamental to take somewhere with wi-fi. And so any blog posts with photos (such as Saturday's fireworks) must wait.

I'm so used to coming home and immediately connecting online that I hardly knew what to do with myself yesterday. I actually baked a peanut butter cheesecake last night with all of my extra time. Paul might not mind if the internet was down a few more days if it meant I spent more time in the kitchen.

Maybe not having the internet for a few days is good for me. But right now, sitting in a run-down branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, it sure doesn't feel like it.